An epic mission

Citadel, officially reported as the second most expensive show ever made on the platform behind last year's The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, is the newest action-packed, sci-fi thriller series in which Amazon teamed up with renowned filmmakers, the Russo brothers, and stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas (The Matrix Resurrections) and Richard Madden (Game Of Thrones) as super spy agents in a future world called Citadel. With a total of six episodes, the first season of Citadel has now dropped two episodes on Prime Video, with one episode being released weekly throughout May.

(Photos courtesy of Prime Video)

Hot off their blockbuster Avengers movies, Anthony and Joseph Russo, who are executive producers, bring their trademark sci-fi to Citadel. The show is set in the near future, or a time when the independent global spy agency called Citadel has fallen. The agency was tasked to uphold the safety and security of all people but was destroyed by operatives of Manticore, a powerful syndicate manipulating the world from the shadows.

With Citadel's fall, elite agents Mason Kane (Madden) and Nadia Sinh (Chopra Jonas) had their memories wiped as they narrowly escaped with their lives. They've remained hidden ever since, building new lives under new identities, unaware of their past until one night when Mason is tracked down by his former Citadel colleague, Bernard Orlick (Stanley Tucci), who desperately needs help to prevent Manticore from establishing a new world order.

With a production budget of US$300 million (10.1 billion baht), Citadel is definitely a passion project as studios look for a big title to make waves. It's also been announced that the show will generate local spin-offs in the future, with spy characters having their own adventures in Italy, India, Spain and Mexico, and in different languages.

Lead actors Chopra Jonas and Madden recently kicked off the global tour of Citadel with its Asia Pacific launch in Mumbai where Life had an opportunity to meet and have one-on-one interviews with the two stars about the making of the highly anticipated spy show.

We heard that the show has been developing for almost five years. What drew both of you to the project in the beginning?

Chopra Jonas: Yes, that was like five years ago. My entry into the show was through Jennifer Salke, who's the head of Amazon Studios. She had this ambitious idea about creating a global show with the Russos with local instalments in different parts of the world. With the ambition of the show and the idea behind it, I was enamoured by the fact that nothing like this has ever been attempted on television. It was just so exciting to be able to have six episodes to delve into such a complex, complicated character.

Madden: For me, what I was drawn to the most was this idea of the jewel characters and the psychology behind that. In Citadel, I'm playing two very different human beings in the same body. And not only that, we're working on what parts of that human being are from your life experience and what parts are built into the choices you make. I think kind of what really got me excited was engaging with the duality inside all of us but in a really kind of literal way. That's crazy.

Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas.

What do you particularly like about the show and the character you play?

Chopra Jonas: I liked the way relationships are written between characters. I think Richard can really encapsulate what is important to Mason. The character comes from a place of really trying to understand this past and who he is as opposed to today, and I think Nadia is who she is today and what she's going to do in the future. They are drawn to each other no matter what happens, and outside of all the flashy action and great stunts, the show has so much heart.

Within the first few minutes of Episode 1, I was impressed by how both of your characters banter back and forth in different languages, from English and French to Spanish. I wonder how much time did you practise the dialogue for the scene and how well do you speak those languages in real life?

Madden: It looks like we are, but we are not, fluent in those five languages. We learned what we needed to and then really practised so it looks like we are. I wish I was though.

Chopra Jonas: You should have answered that we're speaking fluently [laughs].

Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Nadia Sinh in Citadel.

Could you share your experience of what it's like working with the Russo Brothers?

Madden: They have this huge vision in their head -- things that I cannot kind of comprehend -- to scope and scale on. It takes that away from you as an actor and in a beautiful way, so that I can just focus on the story. As an actor, it's great to be able to focus on what we're doing now and not be thinking so big because they already think huge for everyone.

Chopra Jonas: I noticed that they're able to do multiple things at the same time excellently. So I remember seeing Joe sitting on the monitor, talking with other directors and writers on the set of Citadel. I walked in and I was like, I wanted to ask something about the scene and I saw that he was sitting on the post-production for a movie he was doing while he was on set for Citadel. And I took a second to ask my question and he knew exactly what I was asking. I remember walking away saying, 'Damn, that's how I want to be like, to be able to multitask on that level'.

Spies in action.

Can you explain the concept and the possibilities of the plan for making spin-off shows within different languages for Citadel and how it came about?

Madden: You know, we don't know so many details on that. But in order not to spoil all of the other shows, I know that this show is about this huge spy agency that's operating in the shadows and that it is supposed to exist globally. And the best way to express that is this show creates a world where there's a continuity to the spy agency where it's operating in Italy, in India, and that just kind of keeps digging roots into creating a world.

Chopra Jonas: As Richard said, Citadel has allegiance to no nation. It is an intelligence agency for the whole world. So there's a potential for so many incredible instalments of the show in different parts of the world.